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Amazon.ca and the Walrus Foundation Unveil Shortlist for 2015 Amazon.ca First Novel Award

SEATTLE, April 1, 2015 /CNW/ - Amazon.ca and the Walrus Foundation today introduced the nominees for the 2015 Amazon.ca First Novel Award (www.amazon.ca/firstnovelaward) which celebrates the remarkable achievements of first-time Canadian novelists.

The five finalists were selected by head judge Nick Mount. Mount is the fiction editor of The Walrus, author of the prize-winning When Canadian Literature Moved to New York and an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto.

The finalists for the 2015 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, listed alphabetically by author, are:

"We received a wide range of submissions, from writers and publishers across the country and no one genre, setting or style dominated," said Mount, head judge and fiction editor of The Walrus. "The judges and I are committed to finding the bestbooks and it will be no easy task to select this year's winner."

The winner will be announced on May 21 at the annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award ceremony held in Toronto at the Four Seasons Hotel. The winner will be selected from the list of nominees by a panel of judges including head judge Nick Mount and award-winning authors Helen Humphreys and Richard Wagamese.

"With the Walrus Foundation and our esteemed judges, we are eager to celebrate a new year of extraordinary Canadian authors," said Alexandre Gagnon, country manager for Amazon.ca. "We continue to be dedicated to highlighting new and emerging talent in Canadian literature through the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. And this year is no exception, the quality of work was tremendous. It is a privilege to be part of a program that is devoted to nurturing the writing careers of debut authors."

About AmazonAmazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire phone, Fire tablets, and Fire TV are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

About the Walrus FoundationThe Walrus Foundation is a registered charitable non-profit (No. 861851624-RR0001) with an educational mandate to create forums for matters vital to Canadians. The foundation is dedicated to supporting writers, artists, ideas, and thought-provoking conversation. We achieve these goals across multiple platforms: publishing The Walrus magazine ten times a year, in print, tablet, and smart phone editions; curating the Walrus Talks, leadership dinners, speakers' series, and other events across the country; posting original, high-quality content at thewalrus.ca; and through such digital projects as Walrus Ebooks. The foundation also partners with Blue Ant Media to produce documentaries and other programming at thewalrus.ca/tv; and trains young professionals in media, publishing, and non-profit development.

SOURCE Amazon.ca

For further information: Andrew Gouveia, NATIONAL Public Relations, agouveia@national.ca, 416-848-1385